Gaining feedback has played an essential role in the whole
process of creating our music video. This is because it allowed my group and I
to see whether people liked our video and we could identify whether it looked
realistic enough to match the industrial quality of existing videos. I
conducted some research by talking to my peers, teacher and family members to
get their opinion on our video.
School Pitch:
Firstly, I created a Powerpoint presentation that my group and I delivered to
our fellow classmates in order to gain feedback for what they thought of our initial ideas that we were proposing. The presentation involved all aspects such as locations, narrative and
mise-en-scene etc. We also asked them questions during the presentation to get
their thoughts and opinions on our ideas e.g. Sohail and Megi commented
during the video that they didn’t think all of our locations would work because
it would be very time-consuming. At this point we had to take several things
into consideration, but luckily the locations were situated near each other which worked in our favour and
we came to film during free periods which ensured that we met our deadline and
stuck to our schedule. Sohail also commented that he didn't think our narrative would work because he didn't think that having 4 girls and 1 boy would gel. Megi however, liked our narrative idea because she said it would be good to use 1 boy as we wouldn't need to recruit other cast members. This was a logical idea by the band and I, as firstly we didn't have a budget and recruiting other cast members may cause issues to arise as our schedules are not all the same and filming would be complicated as we would try to fit everybody in. Secondly, we wanted to keep 1 boy in the narrative because it adds a twist for the audience and gives them a shock, but it also entertaining at the same time because they become engaged in the video and would want to watch the rest of it in order to see whether one of the girls end up with the boy or whether they find out that they each like the same boy. Ally commented in the video stating that he didn't understand how the girls would perform a dance routine against the white screen. However, when we explained to him that we would be choreographing it ourselves holding several rehearsals prior to filming, he understood this idea and liked it which shows how our dance routine served as an appealing aspect of our music video. It also conforms to the R & G genre showing how we are still representing our genre throughout our video. We took a
recording of the whole presentation:
Vimeo:
Our video was first uploaded onto Vimeo as a way of
obtaining feedback. We could see the amount of views that we received and it
enabled us to see whether our video was proving to be a success or not with our
target audience. As Vimeo is used by many students within our school as some of their pieces of work are also uploaded onto here through the Sidney Stringer channel/page, they could view our video and as the majority of them are in Year 11 and Year 12, their views and feedback are useful because they are of our prime target audience. Here is a screenshot of what our views currently stand at:
From this feedback I’ve learnt that there is obviously a growing interest of our video as the views have been increasing over a period of weeks since it has been uploaded. I’m very pleased with
this as peers have come up to me and personally told me they’d seen our video whilst
others were watching it in school and they provided feedback for what they
thought of it.
Youtube:
Mr Ayres then uploaded our video onto Youtube as a way of
attaining additional feedback from people who are not within our school
circuit. As Youtube is popular with many people and accessible by many, if they
were to come across our video and leave feedback it would be very beneficial. I
believe I am right to say this as when conducting research at the beginning of
the course, I came across several other A2 music videos where I could leave
feedback and comments as many others had already done. Below is a screenshot showing the amount of
views that we currently have:
I also asked my tutor and friends to comment. Below is a
screenshot showing what they wrote:
From this feedback I’ve learnt that the majority of people
enjoyed the narrative and thought that the studio /glamorous scene worked very
well with the girls and the dance routine. This was the first draft of the
video where 1 or 2 parts were out of sync. However, we administered this issue and
the final version will be uploaded to Youtube soon.
The first comment by 'IDRISBHAYAT' shows us that he likes the lighting and thinks the video looks very professional. He also mentions that the song and narrative combine well together which is initially what we wanted to do in order for the audience to understand the story. It also shows how as a group, we have applied Goodwin's theory by having a link between the lyrics and visuals which allows the audience to interpret the song and the story. Similarly, the comment underneath agrees with this and this illustrates that people perceived our narrative correctly, which portrays how during the construction and post-production process, we managed to construct our video effectively by ensuring that our narrative accompanied the lyrics.
The third comment shows that 'yyopsgen' liked the girls dancing together against the white screen as this is typical of a girl band. However, he suggests that we should have more of this as it reinforces the girls as a band. Looking back at this comment, I agree as I believe we have portrayed the girls as individuals by creating their own identity in their own location, but by incorporating more shots of the girls together, this creates consistency and reinforces the girls as a band within the R & B genre.
The last comment by 'royston1992' also reinforces what most people have said about our video; that it looks professional and has a good narrative. The only improvement he has suggested is to have the meeting between Ally, the boy and the girl as a short clip within the video rather than as a still image. We decided to show the meeting as a photograph for the flashback because we wanted to add a unique element into our video. However, I do think that if we were to incorporate the meeting as a short clip it would work because we could change that specific clip to black and white using the monochrome tool in Adobe Premiere which would inform the audience that this is a flashback.
Blog:
I posted the video onto my blog including the first draft and final version. I received some feedback as shown below:
This is Sam's feedback who is a peer and also stars in our music video. From her comment I've learnt that she likes how the video has turned out to what she at first anticipated. She likes the idea of the photographs and thinks that they work well with the narrative. Sam has also commented on our use of mise-en-scene and the individual colour that each girl represents, which she thinks looks "really effective" which is what I wanted, especially since I based my ancillary tasks on this colour scheme. She did however suggest that 1 improvement we could make would be to use a larger variety of shots. I personally feel as though we have used several shots, such as long shots when the girls are in their individual locations and mid close-ups for when they sing with the microphone. However, by Sam providing this feedback, it is constructive because it allows me to identify the needs of our target audience, so therefore we will take this into consideration for future reference.
This is feedback from somebody in Brazil who came across my blog. He commented on the first draft of our music video and said that he "liked the idea of the clip". Although the English isn't as coherent and fluent, Cristiano still congratulates my group and I for our efforts which suggests that he likes our music video. This shows that somebody who isn't in our target audience still liked our music video and therefore this is evidence that it appeals to a wider audience.
Ancillary Tasks:
Our ancillary tasks were to produce a digipak and album advertisement for our band Kandy Rayn. Below are screenshots showing the feedback I'd received on my final ancillary tasks:
Digipak:
This is Sam's feedback for my digipak. From her comment I've learnt that she likes the use of the bright colours used which are the girls individual colour that they represent in the video. She also thinks that my digipak coincides with my advert effectively as "they combine with each other really well". Sam has also written that is is "obvious that they represent the same girl band", which is important as it means that I have created a brand and identity for the band where they can easily be recognized by the target audience.
Album Advertisement:
This is feedback I received from Sam for my album advertisement. Once again Sam has commented on the use of the colours which caught her attention "straight away". This shows how my advert is appealing and engages the audience. One improvement she gave was to not use green text against the yellow background. However, I used this colour as it is the colour that I represent throughout the music video and I based my advertisement on the personalized colour scheme that each member within our band represents. However, taking this comment on board, next time I would tone down the colour yellow in order for the text of the girls' individual colours to stand out to give them more emphasis, but will still stick to the candy theme to represent Kandy Rayn.
Overall, from all the feedback I have received I can conclude that people like our music video and enjoy all of the elements we have incorporated into it. From personally talking to peers face-to-face, they have always commented on how they liked the use of the storyline and the costume that the girls wore during the glamorous scene. As my peers are of our target audience, I was very pleased to see that the video was appealing to them and that they were able to relate to the school scene and liked the change of location to where the girls sang individually which is where they met Ally. I've also learnt that the combination of my digipak and advertisement are very effective and work well together. It is essential that they link as they are what create an identity for the band and are what the audience can instantly recognize with. From my feedback, I've also learnt that the personalised colour scheme for the girls in the video was a strong element to include, as they influenced my designs for my digipak and album advertisement which proved to be impressive. It was very rewarding to know that all of my hard work and effort was paying off!
